How can we tell log4j where is the properties file?

Question

I know we can put it in the home directory of the project and it works as a charm. But really I want to put it under a directory name "Conf" for convenience of later maintenance. How can we do this?

is this answer helpful? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1140358/how-to-initialize-log4j-properly — Brent Worden, Feb 27 '12 at 02:58
Actually I don't want to do it in the Java commandline...I would prefer a way to include it in the java program. — lamwaiman1988, Feb 27 '12 at 04:17

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 27 '12 at 05:05

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log4j gives option to use different file as input. Also you can do a watch on the contents. See http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/apidocs/org/apache/log4j/PropertyConfigurator.html#configureAndWatch(java.lang.String, long) for details

answered Feb 27 '12 at 05:05

Jayan

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bmargulies · Answer 2 · 2012-02-27T15:16:15.183

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I don't know about 'we', but the log4j documentation is perfectly clear.

http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/manual.html will tell you that log4j searches for log4j.properties or log4j.xml in the classpath, until and unless you use a system property to tell it to look for a different file or in a different place.

You might also find http://robertmaldon.blogspot.com/2007/09/programmatically-configuring-log4j-and.html interesting as an example of explicit configuration from code; it does not use a log4j.properties At All.

edited Feb 27 '12 at 15:16

answered Feb 27 '12 at 02:56

bmargulies

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Yes, what I am asking is how to tell log4j to look for a different place for the properties file. I think if we include the directory into the classpath it would be fine, but I don't want to do it as a run option for "Java". – lamwaiman1988 Feb 27 '12 at 04:19
Call System.setProperty before initializing any loggers. – bmargulies Feb 27 '12 at 15:15

How can we tell log4j where is the properties file?

2 Answers2